Elizabeth GaskellElizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell née Stevenson was an English Victorian novelist. She was born in Chelsea, London on 29th September 1810, and was the daughter of a Unitarian minister, William Stevenson. Elizabeth was raised by an aunt Hannah Lumb, who lived in Knutsford, after her mother's death in 1811, when she was just 13month old.
In 1832, she married William Gaskell, who was an assistant Unitarian minister, at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel in Manchester where they then lived.
The death of her only son inspired her to write her first novel, 'Mary Barton', which was published anonymously in 1848. It was a success and won the praise of Charles Dickens who invited her to contribute to his magazine, 'Household Words'. Her next major work, 'Cranford', appeared in 1853, and 'North and South' was published in 1854. Gaskell's work brought her many friends, including the novelist Charlotte Brontë. When Charlotte died in 1855, her father, Patrick Brontë, asked Gaskell to write her biography. The 'Life of Charlotte Brontë' (1857).
Elizabeth wrote many short stories and novellas, of which the finest is said to be Cousin Phillis (1863).
Her other full-length novels were Cranford (1853) Ruth (1853) North and South (1855) Sylvia’s Lovers (1863) and finally Wives and Daughters (1866), which was never finished.
Elizabeth died suddenly on 12th November 1865 at The Lawn, a house in Holybourne in Hampshire. She is buried in the grounds of the Brook Street Unitarian Chapel in Knutsford, along with her husband William Gaskell.
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